Microsoft buys Havok from Intel, GAFfers tear skin off while screaming about endtimes
- Thread starter gofreak
- Start date
I apologize, but the point is that even in something as complex as software development, sometimes it's easier and better to use two different things than one.
It's clear that most people don't understand how businesses work. MS didn't spend untold millions of dollars to play neener neener with Playstation. They bought it to make money from it, which you don't do by limiting your customer base.
If further proof is needed, here:
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/10/02/microsoft-buys-havok-from-intel
Maybe put this in the OP.
VincentMatts
Member
Yeah, people think everything has to do with console wars. MS is a software company first and foremost and have been licensing out windows to Sony for a long time for their Viao computers, and im sure MS pay Sony in some way (like for the bluray) and other stuff. Its just business as usual.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
Yes. Middleware tools have been mainstream for a long time. Companies take advantage of all sorts of tools to speed up development and it seems to be a direction the industry keeps getting deep into.
Just look at how many games use Speedtree for example. That's a middleware tool just for trees in all sorts of games.
The industry is so vast that many companies hire external experts to help them with things to reduce the development time as it just becomes too much and too expensive.
PSYGN
Member
Samurai G0SU
Member
Hey! Did you pick up yourself a Havok yet? .....
Where it it's an all in one system; Motion Jesture and voice commands w/Kinect 3.0."Tell Xbox Havok to play that netflix show now mom!"
The VR Oculus is also bundled. Watch netflix in VR! Play games in VR! GET READY!
Experience the new dashboard and 1st party exclusive games that are also compatiable with the HoloLense*!
"Do you Havok? Don't just jump in or ahead, Jump like you mean it."
*sold separetly
Disclaimer......
So many reasons above why im not in marketing, product development, or a comedian.
AndrewDean84xX
Banned
Any chance we see a log change, like it saying "Microsoft's Havok"
Call it Xbox Havok. Seeing that at the start screen of Uncharted would be a mindfuck.
psynergylover
Member
The endtimes are upon us!!!
What a big move by MS; bought to make dat dough
What a big move by MS; bought to make dat dough
Hawk269
Member
You had to go make perfect sense didn't you? People want drama and how this move will ruin the industry or like the scholar that said MS can now spout pr about being involved in all games etc.
Phoenix Fang
Banned
Does that mean indies will get to use it for free if they are building a game on Unity 5 for Pc and the One if they are using Havok as the physic solution?
I see, so these middleware are more like an add on to the base engine? Example Unreal Engine uses Havok for some task that are better in Havoc or are not present in UE? sorry for my lack of knowledge.
Mysterious
Banned
This could be a good thing, if it happens.
Caayn
Member
Why would MS pay Sony for blu-Ray when MS is also on the board of the blu-ray disc association?
But yeah, your point still stand though
Why? Sony already incorporates Microsoft technology in their most successful product at the moment, the PS4. You need to realize that companies don't see console wars, they see ways to achieve the profits.
Sony is not going to quit using Havok just because Microsoft owns it now.
One thing that tends to confuse people a bit is that there's a difference between a game engine (i.e. Unreal Engine or Unity or Fox) and individual engine components (lighting, physics, AI, etc) that tend to be called things like "Lighting Engines".
A licensed game engine is essentially a big collection of little engines that handle each of these individual components, sometimes with middleware already included (UE4's physics engine is PhysX, Unity's lighting engine is Geomerics), along with a set of tools for creating gameplay code, designing levels, managing art assets, and all the other processes you need to do to make a game.
When you license an engine component (like a lighting engine), you essentially plug it into the codebase and use it instead of whatever the default lighting engine is. Of course, if you're making your own engine, you may have never written a physics engine component, and instead just used Havok, which is developed by a bunch of highly skilled physics programmers, and just have your engine use that code whenever you need physics calculations.
In general, Havok is not a full service game engine. They just sell you a variety of parts you can plug into your own engine (licensed or internally developed) in order to do things like handle AI, physics, or destruction. Often game companies will make modifications to this code as well in tandem with the component vendor. Havok Destruction is developed in tandem with DICE for example for the Battlefield series. This is despite Frostbite being the actual game engine.
To use a car analogy, Unreal and Unity are like buying cars, whereas Havok is like buying a new set of wheels or a new transmission for your existing car because you feel they will notably improve its performance.
VincentMatts
Member
Only thing im hoping is that this doesn't turn into a "we bought havok and now had a layoff of about half the company" like they did Nokia.
Didnt Sony invent the tech?
Why would MS pay Sony for blu-Ray when MS is also on the board of the blu-ray disc association?
But yeah, your point still stand though
Didnt Sony invent the tech?
They'll probably lose some people.
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
With any acquisition, there tends to be redundancies that they have to address. Unfortunately that usually means laying people off.
PanicFreak
Member
I've even heard that new Sony Android phones come preloaded with Microsoft software!!! The Apocalypse is nigh!
killer rin
Member
Holy shit, this is huge. In one move Microsoft essentially just got perpetual income from like 3/4 of the Industry.
So in all likelihood, no.
And then after that, they need a Game Engine they can add to their lineup of tools. So we either got Unity or Epic up on the table.
You laugh, but its a tricky question. On one hand, Microsoft could begin to make additional optimizations that would play well to the Xbox, which would make it easier for devs to hit that point... on the other hand, that would require Microsoft to care about doing so, and at the same time it could be negligible improvements at best (if any at all).
So in all likelihood, no.
Holy shit.
Next up:
And then after that, they need a Game Engine they can add to their lineup of tools. So we either got Unity or Epic up on the table.
Havok Vision is; but it doesn't have much traction compared to other engines.
LukasTaves
Member
I do hope Ms leverages the tech and made something like a standard directx library, optimized to run on all vendors, perhaps even getting away from licensing if you are developing a directx game, or anything that makes nice smoke/fluids/cloth/hair effects available for everyone and not just specific vendors.
Caayn
Member
They did but not alone. They worked together with other companies such as TDK, LG, Panasonic and others. The myth that Sony invented it alone probably comes from the fact that Sony was the one that pushed really hard for blu-ray with the PS3.
Integrating Havoc into the cloud physics features I thought.
Why did Intel buy it in the first place?
Right. Their brochure even only lists six games (well, five games and one studio) that have used it: http://www.havok.com/wp-content/uploads/Havok_Brochures/Havok_Vision_Engine_2015.pdf
CosmicQueso
Member
Yeah, right. All those customers who will now buy Xbox One's because of its exclusive middleware solutions.
Some of these posts...
And I think at one point Blu-rays were using a codec owned by MS, so MS were paid a license fee for every blu-ray disc sold.
Don't quote me on that though!
(unless I am correct)
VincentMatts
Member
How would that be better for them rather than licensing it out to every game company out there?
Ricky Ricardo
Member
Unity and Microsoft are already pretty close. Dev is done is C# and Microsoft basically abandoned XNA for it.
Schrade
Member
Yeah this is a typical Microsoft thing to do. Buy something a lot of people use then mess it up in some way to force the use of a Microsoft thing. I remember Microsoft bought a search plugin for Outlook and then supposedly integrated it into its default Outlook search. Except it forgot to integrate the speed of the plugin
Then they made it so the plugin wouldn't work with later versions of Outlook.Microsoft's track record isn't so good with this stuff.
VincentMatts
Member
I dunno. They built DX12, Havok is already being used by all these companies as we speak. Would be complicated i think to just "stop" supporting them out of the blue
GifGafIsTheBestGaf
Member
so out of nowhere lol
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
Isn't this leading MS back to the same route that got them in trouble w/ the gov't back in the late '90s? Seems like a slippery slope to me.
using my example in the prior post.
directx 11 uses havokx 11, open to everyone
directx 11.2 uses havokx 11.2, exclusive to xbox one